Animating LeBreton Flats streets

The picture above is a new condo door installed by Claridge on its ground floor condos on Lett Street (LeBreton Flats, under the yellow tower).

It is highly significant.

City and NCC plans for the development call for animated streets, full of people walking, playing, shopping ... but the first phase building as regular sliding doors on all ground floor units. You know, patio doors. No lock nor key to access them from the outside. No lobby space inside those doors, just step straight into the living room. In short, the developer paid lip service to the notion of animated streets but built the opposite.

The second phase of the first building faces Lett and Fleet Streets. The ground floor units (mostly) have hinged glass doors. With exterior handles. And locks. So someone can actually come and go at street level.

It is an improvement.

383 Albert, transit oriented parking requirements

The pictures above show the Claridge proposal for three residential (condo) towers in downtown Ottawa. As noted in a post a few days ago, they are to be built on the lot between the Crowne Plaza Hotel and 151 Bay condos. The current parking lot location abuts Barabarella's dancing establishment, which will remain after this project is built.

The two 28 storey and one 22 storey towers will have approx 481 apartments. They are located directly above the proposed west downtown LRT station which is under Albert Street. Perhaps those delighted looking ladies in the photomontage just exited the LRT and are headed towards Minto Place ...

The city rationalizes a big part of its LRT expenditure on intensified infill development around the stations. As part of this intense Transit-Oriented-Development (TOD) the plans call for high density and reduced parking.

Claridge is proposing to provide 365 residential parking spaces (365spaces/481units=75% parking). This is less than what developers usually provide for condos, for eg along Richmond Road, West Wellie, or Champagne Avenue they provide 113% (1.13spaces per unit). Better developers provide reserved prime spots for VirtuCar since each VirtuCar satisfies approximately 17 households, ie eliminates 17 parking stalls which cost developers approx $30k each to build (several developers I talked to said the 30k cost/price is cost recovery).  Claridge is also providing 241 bike parking spaces (50%) which I suspect is way too low.

So what does the City of Ottawa require as the MAXIMUM number of spaces the developer can provide for this Transit Oriented Development, so as to encourage people to walk and use transit?? Why ... the maximum number of spaces within 600m of a transit station is ... wait for it ... 722 spaces, or 150% parking. Think about that: the city's maximum number of spaces to encourage transit usage is HIGHER than developers want to provide or normally provide either in the downtown core or inner suburbs. Is our TOD policy as farcical as it looks? Makes me wonder what other marvellous things are in that policy.

Condo Development linked to LRT ? Will Claridge "play ball"?

The lot shown in the pictures below is bounded by Queen street on the right (north); Lyon in the foreground (east side); and Albert Street to the left (south). Claridge, a prominent Ottawa condo developer, owns it.  Your photog is standing at the foot of the downramp from the Crowne Plaza hotel:

This view is from the corner of Albert and Lyon, at the foot of the ramp up to the Crowne Plaza's awful driveway ramp entrance. The red brick building at the far side of the lot is 151 Bay, a fourteen storey condo built by Teron in the 70's as part of the Delta Hotel and office tower complex off to the right:

Here is a view from the west corner of the lot, near the Bay/Albert intersection. The CS CO-OP building is immediately to the right, not shown in this photo, which is the site of the proposed new main Library and the entrance to the LRT station a hundred or so feet down:

Here's a view of the lot from the fourteenth floor of 151 Bay Street. Barbarella's strip club is the low rise building on the left side of the lot, the Crowne Plaza and Constitution Square office buildings are beyond:

The Downtown Ottawa transit tunnel (DOTT) project for our underground LRT system will run under Albert Street (the right side of the above picture)  beside the largely vacant lot. To the right, just off the edge of the picture, is the Cs Co-Op lot, which is proposed to become the site of a large new Library building. The western portion of the downtown will be served by a underground LRT station. The station would have two entrances:

• one to the east end of the station platforms, coming up beside the fountain in front of Place de Ville, serving the  downtown office buildings; and
• one entrance from the west end of the platform, coming up through the Library building, and serving the concentration of residential high rises there. 

The two figures below are lifted from an earlier DOTT planning report showing the two entrances in a bird's eye view and a cut-away drawing showing the entrance under the Library block and an optional one in the east under the Constitution Square complex.

                            double click to enlarge

Claridge is proposing three towers for the lot: a 28 storey condo (twice as tall as the Teron red brick condo already on the Bay street end of the block); a second 28 storey condo tower (taller than the Crowne Plaza, shorter than Place de Ville tower C); and a 22 storey condo tower. The height will be 81m (the current zoning permits 60m); all on a one storey commercial podium.

There is evidence in the literature that builders will pay a premium of up to 25% for sites close to a transit station. In this case, Claridge bought the site some years ago. So it has increased in value a lot. In turn, he can charge a premium for the condos there (about 4%), due to their proximity to the LRT station. Link:  http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_15290467 The story in the link -- from Denver, another snowy city like ours -- shows the proximity to transit is the second most important factor for residents there in selecting their high rise location.

And it would be very attractive to live in a complex directly connected to a transit station: all indoor connections via LRT to two universities and one college; to the Rideau Centre, convention centre, St Laurent, to the train station and eventually to the airport. And to many employment centres. The location will appeal to students, professors, young professionals, and seniors.  So will Claridge build the link to the LRT station?

I think if this was an office structure, Claridge would not hesitate to build the link. In this case and given the hot condo market, I think he would sell out easily whether the link to the station is across the street or within his building concourse. If I were Claridge, I'd build an elevator down to the station that was from a separate transit lobby connected to the condo concourse so residents could stay indoors, and public sidewalk users could access the elevator down- lobby from the sidewalk (but not enter the condo lobbies).

But, my sources indicate Claridge is not excited about a direct connection. Apparently, part of the problem is the unknown cost of maintaining the elevator, escalators,  and lobby, which would become the eventual responsibility of the condo owners. In this case, I think it logical to structure the access structures as a condominium itself, with the the three Claridge towers owning a part, and the city owning a part. Count the users every three years or so, and split the maintenance costs between the parties according to how many people use the elevator from the sidewalk vs the condo. The uncertainty risk is then split amongst several parties.

Another complication is that in the current DOTT plans, the city-constructed station entrance comes up through the new Library site. If the Library is not under construction by 2017, then a temporary building to house the top of the elevator shafts and escalators would be required on the Library site, to be later incorporated into the Library building. But what if the city gives up on the Library entrance for the opening of the LRT and instead builds the entrance on the north side of Albert, on the Claridge lot, as part of their condo development, and leaves the the Library access for construction later, when the library complex is actually built?? (this also gives more flexibility in where the station access would come up in the Library building -- on Albert street side or the Slater street side...)

I trust the city has senior staff -- backed up by some imaginative staff capable of thinking outside the box (and they do exist) --  negotiating with Claridge right now to come to some workable solution for a direct connection to the LRT station. If agreement is possible, it creates a valuable precedent and market vote of confidence in the value of connecting with the LRT underground.

Archways

 Ashcroft is proposing a wide two or three storey arch on the north side of its convent development in Westboro. They are proposing an "arched" arch, rather than the very square ones at 200 Lett St (Claridge's project on LeBreton Flats). The photos above show their north arch. Notice that the road surface and pedestrian walking surface are undifferentiated with so much as a curb or coloured paver. At the midpoint of each Claridge arch is the entrance to the parking garage, so this passageway is sometimes busy with cars. The length of the passageway through the building seems short enough for pedestrians, with the eye attracted to the daylight at each end. It certainly does not feel like a Queensway underpass!

Courtyard in Condo

This photo looking towards the downtown from the courtyard at 200 Lett Street, the first condo on the Flats. Place de Ville is the blocky building in the background. Phase two of the condo is under construction to the right. At the very back, it is still one floor short of its full podium height. Due to the angle the building sits on the site, the second phase podium has more units than the first, and it turns to partially enclose the back of the courtyard. The second tower, to be clad in yellow brick and some of the same glass as the first, goes above the turn in the building at centre right in the picture.

I had been concerned that the new podium structure would block too much of the view and result in a claustrophobic courtyard. However, even at this early stage, the courtyard still feels generous and urbane.

The view from the same courtyard in late summer. It is an amazing vista of foreground green roof landscaping and beyond the kayak tailrace lies the Garden of the Provinces and the downtown highrises.

The exterior walls being enclosed. The podium will be the same style as the first phase podium -- yellow brick, some variation in the window pattern from floor to floor, although not as much as on the first phase.

Since these buildings started, a number of other condos in the city are proposed that also have the variable window pattern from floor to floor, eg the two condos on West Wellington at Island Park.

LeBreton Flats Condo grows

The first phase of the first building on LeBreton Flats is towards the left. It includes a six storey podium building of yellow brick with a seven storey glass tower above. The right most wall of the podium was partially unfinished, in order to attach the second phase.

The podium portion of the second phase has been poured. Six storeys high, it will be clad in yellow brick like phase one. Windows and exterior walls are being put in place. Plumbing drains have been installed on the first two floors. There will be a seven floor tower on top of this podium, to be located at the end of the building just past the crane.

Closer up, showing the new wing attached to the existing building at the small triangular ledges that were put in place for phase one.

West Wellington Condo Mania

A new condo is planned for 1433 Wellington, a half block east of Island Park Drive. It is almost opposite the recent Domicile building at the corner of Picadilly. The site is currently a small strip mall. I think a new mid-rise condo is a big improvement over the strip mall and worthwhile bit of intensification.

The building will have vehicular access from the side facing the Loeb/Metro store.

The building exterior is very much in the same style as the building at 200 Lett Street at the corner of Wellington, the first condo built in the current LeBreton Flats project. While it doesn't have a glass tower on top of a podium, both are similar heights (six and seven stories), have windows that vary vertically and horizontally in size, shape, and position. Both have decorative horizontal reliefs or cut ins.

It remains to be seen if this building, already in a built-up area, will be better received than the LeBreton building.

The Claridge condo on the Flats is much larger than 1433 Wellington. However, a similar sized and designed building to the one pictured above(same architect, same builder) is planned for right next door in West Wellington (the car audio site), so from the street there will be much more building than looking at "phase 1" might suggest. The two West Wellington buildings as currently planned will be separated by the 3 storey Bella Bistro restuarant.

The two new West Wellington buildings,plus the nearby 101 Richmond Road condo now under construction on the west side of Island Park, are all of a similar architectural style that will set the tone for the neighborhood. Recall too that Ashcroft, builder of 101, now owns the convent grounds across the street and will likely be wanting to build more, similar condo buildings.

LeBreton Flats condo grows

Claridge is busy building the second tower / second half of the first building at 200 Lett Street on LeBreton Flats. Now that the garage levels are in, the swiming pool cast, and the ground floor poured, the remaining floors will pour quickly, maybe one floor per week.

The new building will be a seven storey podium of yellow brick, with a tower on the east side going to 14 floors, with an exterior of yellow brick and glass (same glass as first tower, but second tower will read as mostly brick).

The architecture or style of this building is spreading. Two new condos on West Wellington near Island Park are similar style to the LeBreton podiums.

Blinding Urban Development

It's not often that I feel dazzled by the Claridge condo at 200 Lett Street on the Flats, but this sunset corrected that. BYW, the condo finally has a street number near the front door, but curiously confuses the viewer by showing the street number but not the street name, instead it is accompanied by the NCC marketing phrase LeBreton Flats. It's not really 200 LeBreton Flats, it's 200 Lett Street.

200 Lett St condo by Claridge

Claridge built the first yellow brick condo tower at 200 Lett Street in LeBreton Flats. While not my favorite building, it looks a lot better with (most) landscaping now installed.

Construction has begun on tower 2, immediately to the south of the first building. It will be joined to the first building on the 4th through 6th floors, and will have another tower (not all glass) at the east end of the final U-shaped structure.

The picture shows the bottom floor of the two floor garage. Blue drainage pipes for all the down runs have been installed, the floor gravel (crushed on site) has been laid. Next step will be scaffolding to support the garage floor on top of the poured pillars.

Contrary results ...

NCC path (foreground); City path beyond


what will the yellow line do?



There must be a law or maxim somewhere that the more planning is done, the more expensive the administration, the worse the results.
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A few blogs ago I lamented the apparent mismatch between the NCC section of the bikepath from new Wellington that goes south along the aquaduct behind the new Claridge condo at 200 Lett Street in LeBreton Flats.
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I still cannot believe that despite all the planners, all the coordination, the high city taxes ... that the City-spec'd path is two feet narrower than the NCC path it continues.
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I remain curious as to what the yellow line will do ... jog to the centre of the city section? continue straight on leaving one lane wider than the other? Or maybe the city won't have a yellow line, because their path isn't a bike path, its a pedestrian only path?

Edit: 25 August 2009: as noted in the comments, it is an illusion that the NCC path is wider than the City path. Both measure the same with a tape measure at several points along the paths. However, there is a side path joining the NCC path just a few feet north of the switchover to City path, and the problem lies at the junction. Basically, the NCC contractor did not build a proper radius or curve on the side path and it joins the NCC path rather sloppily, leaving only the few feet from the where the paths join to the joint with the City path being too wide by about a foot. The correct solution is to trim the NCC path back for about 10' on its radius so it blends into the main path better. So, the City and NCC are coordinating their paths correctly. Whew.
-Eric Darwin

How Wide is a Bike Path ?

in May, NCC path is laid, looking south from Wellington


in August, Claridge lays path behind 200 Lett St condo

Now Claridge may not be the fastest developer in town, but he is finally implementing the landscaping around the 200 Lett Street yellow-brick condo tower on LeBreton Flats. The path behind the condo, along the tailrace/aquaduct, is being laid and connected to the NCC path. The path is laid to City of Ottawa standards, as spec'd to Claridge in the subdivision agreement.

Look at the not-yet-paved gravel path in picture two, which extends the NCC path. Notice that the new path is at least one foot, maybe two feet, narrower than the NCC path. Yup, the NCC apparently builds its paths to a more generous standard than the City, and the two bodies can't quite coordinate when they build different sections of the same path...

Unless ... the NCC built a multipurpose path, which most of us (in)correctly call bike paths, and the city is planning a pedestrian only path ... it wouldn't surprise me if the two layers of government are that far out of sync ... after all, when the City built the path along the north side of Albert from Bronson to Bayview, they paved it a foot or so narrower than their 'official' bike/multipurpose paths, so they won't paint a yellow line down the middle, and have threatened to put "walk your bike" signs on the path. All this, even when they were advised by a number of parties even before the gravel roadbed was put down, that it was too narrow, but apparently four months notice before the asphalt was too late for the city to fix it, so cyclists and pedestrians are stuck with a nebulous "what is it" path that looks like a bike path but maybe is and maybe isn't... when the asphalt goes down on the path along the tailrace, I'll measure it and the NCC path and compare.

Pooley's Bridge Re-opens

view from temporary path towards north end of Pooley's Bridge


view north along the temp path towards Wellington

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Pooley's bridge is an historic stone arch bridge over the aquaduct/tailrace at the foot of Bronson hill. It permits pedestrians and cyclists direct access from the downtown via Commissioner St (that part of "Bronson" that extends downhill north of Albert) to LeBreton Flats. It was renovated and restored a few years ago, for pedestrian and cyclist traffic only, but then was promptly closed when Fleet Street was closed to public access during construction of residences on LeBreton Flats.
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I have been part of the chorus of people nagging the city and NCC to reopen the bridge, especially since construction of housing by Claridge seems to be going so slowly. My last kick at the cat was to nag the NCC and City in preparation for Bluesfest, since it made a direct and easy access to the site from the downtown.
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Its too late for Bluesfest, but today I discovered that the extension of the NCC pathway (subject of a number of previous posts ) on the north side of the aquaduct directly behind the new condo tower, is nearing completion. The gravel bed is down, and stakes mark the final asphalt grade. To my surprise, the path does not end at the mid point behind the building, but suddenly narrows to a 6' path that skirts the construction fences and opens to the north end of Pooley's bridge, which is once again open for traffic.
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Within a few days, it should be paved, and this valuable link will be open again. Note that cyclists and walkers will not directly access Fleet St from the north end of the bridge, but will skirt around the yellow condo at 200 Lett St and be delivered either to Lett St a few meters north of Fleet, or directly to new Wellington Street.

Landscaping resumes at Claridge's Condo

I figured that Claridge might never landscape its project on LeBreton Flats. But in the last few weeks, a lot has happened. Sod appeared on the west side of Lett Street (right side of picture 2) in front of the Beirut-style bomb crater. And on Friday, some rather large trees appeared in the front lawn of the building, along the sidewalk. Compare the size of the new trees to the ones planted a few months ago along the north side of the building, shown on the left in picture 2.

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Picture 1 is of the rear yard, or courtyard between the current building and next phase just starting. Landscapers have been installing decorative paving designed to turn a plain lawn into a sort of sculpture. Three large trees have been planted too. All the area in picture 1 is on the roof of the parking structure. I have not been able to see if they have started the green roof on the seventh floor planters.

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The building has no name, but this week it sprouted a number: 200 Lett Street. Lett is still a private street, as is Fleet, both of which will be assumed by the City as public streets when the development conditions are fully met.

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Behind the building, red-tiped stakes mark out the continuation of the short NCC bike path that will someday run along the tailrace / aquaduct.

Smart Construction techniques

Claridge has resumed work on the condo project on LeBreton Flats. The new tower will be immediately south of the current yellow brick podium and glass tower, and will appear to be a continuation of the same building around a common courtyard.

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The rock material excavated from the parking garage hole is trucked a few hundred meters to the south and dumped. The yellow excavator is moving the rocks into the blue crusher that turns the large rocks into gravel, which is being stacked up by the red shovel. The debris piles did not look that large a few days ago, so I was surprised to see how large the resulting gravel piles are.

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This on-site crushing is big improvement over prior practice which would have seen hundreds of truckloads of stone trucked through the neighborhood to some far-away dump; and later hundreds of truckl0ads of gravel would have made their way to the construction site. The Claridge project is aiming for LEED certification.

Recession Over ?

New housing starts is a good leading indicator of economic confidence. Builders must get their product started a year or more before it is to be occupied.

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Three new residential projects have begun in the west side area. The top picture shows the excavation for the second tower of Claridge's project on LeBreton Flats. If you look closely, you can see the base for the high crane has been installed on the right side of the hole, near Fleet Street which leads to Pooley's Bridge and the downtown.

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Picture 2 shows the demolition of two older housing units on Preston Street. They will be replaced by a new three storey building (2 floors of residential above commercial). The advertisement and elevation for the project was shown in an earlier blog. I really like this project, its scale is perfect for the street, and it more than meets the main street zoning and planning guidelines for at least 50% of the total floor area being residential above the commercial area.

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The last picture shows the first bit of hole digging for the Z6 condo building on Booth Street at Balsam, near St Anthony School. The four storey condo has one commercial space on ground floor; the project is 60% sold.

Claridge's Brown-Green Roof

mid-May

mid-June

Claridge is the developer of phase one, LeBreton Flats. They have half of the first building on Lett Street is constructed and many suites are occupied. The NCC landscaped the area to the north of the building, running up to the new Wellington Street, with paved bicycle path, benches, garbage cans, trees, shrubs, and grass. The did a significant chunk of this work in mid-winter.

Claridge is responsible for doing the landscaping immediately behind the current condo building. The top picture shows truckloads of sand put on the gravel on top of the parking garage roof. They did this in mid-May. One might be forgiven in expecting the green roof of this LEED development to be in place by now. But picture two shows the site as it is today - the only work done is to spread the sand with a tractor. No plants, no grass, no sign of the artistic landscaping consisting of artwork-like paving strips laid through the velvet lawn. And on the roof, where there are several planters so the building could boast a green roof to absorb run off and reduce urban heat effect ... well, nothing green up there yet that I can see.

What must those people who paid a premium on their units to look onto greenroofs be thinking? (Would it be printable?). And to think the developer still has units in the finished building for sale ("immediate occupancy" - with view of dustbowl at the back and Beirut-style crators at the front...) and many units in the second of the building - yet to be constructed - remain unsold. And in early July, tens of thousands of Ottawans will be swarming around the site for Bluesfest. Most developers would see this as a marvelous sales and awareness-raising opportunity.

LEED? More like a LEAD development.

But Claridge is present on the site - they appear to be preparing the hole for the second half of the building, also a 6 floor podium building in yellow brick with another 7 storey yellow brick tower on top.

Bikepath to No-where

The NCC has been landscaping the area north of the Claridge condo building on LeBreton Flats since mid-winter. Earlier posts on this blog showed the winter landscaping and very early spring planting of trees and shrubs. Eventually, the Fallen Firefighters Monument will be constructed on the grassy area.

The contractor (same one as is doing Plouffe Park) has now paved the bike path from Wellington Street north along the west side of the tailrace. A side branch cuts off to the west to join Lett Street beside the condo. But the path goes nowhere, as Claridge hasn't yet landscaped the area between the condo building and the tailrace. The NCC has also seeded the area with grass seed. Light standards are not yet installed. The entire length of the new bike path is shown in the picture above.

This first bit of path bodes well for the future bike and pedestrian pathway that is supposed to eventually continue from here to the end of Pooley's Bridge (ridiculously still closed after an expensive renovation as a essential pedestrian and cycling link) and then west along the aquaduct to Booth and eventually the Ottawa River Parkway where it begins at Vimy Street.

While the plan is good, it will be even better if the path also continues west to service Bayview Station and then eventually joins the Scott St path going to Westboro. But all the investment in the current path sections will be nearly useless if the NCC and City persist in building the path one building lot at a time, with the complete path being usable only when all the Flats are built out in thirty years time. When will we get those nifty aquaduct-side cafes featured on the NCC website?

Kudos to the NCC for building the path, and the quality of the landscaping. Thumbs down on the glacial build-out timeline.

Claridge Green Roof underway

Claridge has finally got going on its green roof for the now-occupied condo on LeBreton Flats. The roof shown is on top of the parking garage, and will be covered with up to 3' of soil on top of the gravel base already laid down. More photos to come as they landscape the roof.

LeBreton Landscaping adventures continue

NCC plantings along new bike path, view from Wellington



Claridge doing nothing yet... this is their green roof



NCC plants up to edge of Claridge condo




NCC trees along north edge of condo

In a posting in March, there were photos of the NCC doing winter landscaping on the Flats. They filled in the depression on the north side of the Claridge condo on Lett St, phase 1 of LeBreton Flats north of Albert. They graded the land to a lawn area, roughed in bike/pedestrian paths, and installed a generous trench of topsoil for a row of trees along Wellington. They are now planting in the new areas.

Note that the new bike path goes nowhere. It descends downslope from Wellington, along the west side of the tailrace landscaping. Once it reaches the Claridge zone, it stops dead. Claridge is supposed to continue the path and install landscaping along the public lands between its building and the ravine, as part of its subdivision agreement with the city. There is no sign of Claridge crews. Once they build their section of bike path, it still won't go anywhere until Claridge builds tower 2 of the current building. There is also no sign of Claridge installing its green roof on the parking garage or in the roof top planters.

All this is in marked contrast to the lot to the immediate west of the Claridge condos. It remains a hole that is more evocative of Khandahar than Ottawa. Anyone want to spend half a million buying a condo with a view of an open pit?